Question-based learning

It was raining last time I was typing and it's raining again today... it means a lot of time has passed since my last post. There has been a hot summer and I've been quite busy running around my children and watching them grow, mumble and even walk their first steps. I've been turning myself into a little robot, waking up at 5 and doing nothing , but everything until 11 at night. I lost track of many things I used to watch or follow... today I found out Scott Thornbury has just changed his blog posts, basically started a new one and I am really interested in the new format and new teaching ideas he is ready to explore. I have so little time for reading that I have to run through the posts or flip through some pages... I sometimes get some teaching ideas and they never get down on paper, but I hope I can slowly get back to this kind of living too.
Not to lose my practice I still have some private classes that keep me updated and I can share some ideas with you.

Asking questions can sometimes be a good reinforcing exercise at any level, because it seems the hardest job for all my students. I would advise using this as many times as possible, especially because that's also the best way for a non-native speaker to understand the grammatical structures. We all know that the theoretical explanation it's just for academical purposes, in real life speaking comes fluently and naturally only if these "rules" are clearly understood and practiced long enough to become part of the current language the students are familiar with.
Only through questions we can set a more vivid learning environment, because we actually ask more than answer, curiosity is the one starting most of the conversations (think of the daily gossip). "How, where, why, what?" become the core of any dialogue. So here are some ideas for practicing question-asking:
- When starting a new lesson the students must be curious about the others latest "adventures" so we can simply start with each student being allowed to ask 2 "hot" questions related to his classmates daily life. This can usually make way for the Present simple, Present Perfect or Past Simple practice.
- "Your dreams" (Future Simple practice or Second Conditional for more advanced groups) can work if each student is asked to write some of his wildest dreams on a sheet of paper, then fold it and put it in a box, or a hat. Then the trick is for the classmates to find out whose piece of paper is being read aloud by the teacher.
- "Questions Jeopardy" can work very well for a revision lesson. The idea is to have the answer and request the question. It can be fun and tricky for most of the students. You can have answers such as last year, when you came, to Paris, to my mother, just for fun..., for many years, etc. I found this type of activity most rewarding in terms of grammar practice.
- "Stronger wins" can be a good game too. You need a long string or rope and number it like a ruler into as many parts as you fell like, split the class in two and have them play the pull the rope game, but in this case not using the physical force, but the "question power", that means if the 1st team asks a question gets to pull the rope towards them 10 centimeters( for example), the other teams needs to find a logical question that can follow the one the 1st team asked. If one team misses the question, the others get closer to the end of the rope. And the game goes on for as many questions the teacher sets the game for. It can be fun and challenging, because this game involves not only question phrasing but linking them into a coherent dialogue.
- For younger students the "Why?" game fits like a glove, because children naturally do that, asking as many "why"-s as they can. So play that too, set a topic or more and have the students compete by awarding the best number of questions asked on the chosen topic.
- "The alphabet game" can work for questions and high-level students because here you can also teach them linker-s, some words that help us phrase a question. I will give you an example : One student says the alphabet in his mind and the others say STOP. Let's say he stops at P. One student from the opposite team should phrase a question by starting with P. So he can say Perhaps I am allowed to ask you why you like so much scuba diving. If the alphabet counter stop of F, they can say For many years I have been wondering why  you  don't tell us your real name... This way the students are ready to phrase longer questions, indirect questions that are so much used in real life language.
These are some of the games I found well-working in class and I am sure there can be so many more. Hope it was useful and that I made you question yourselves about funny question-asking games that can be used as TEFL means :) Any other ideas are welcomed!

Facebook and the rain... or viceversa

I guess this continuous rain got into my brains too, I feel my mind empty, numb, stuck into some kind of metallic stillness...I like spring (even though I'd rather have endless summer), but this spring got on my nerves... so many people say rain is poetical, rain reveals the depths of human soul, rain tells about the world better than the sun; maybe, but after weeks of cold and  grey we all need some shades of orange and red and green...
... So I spend most of my time with my children and of course the magical Facebook. I was just thinking the other day how long I've been refusing to start an account on Facebook, firstly because I was scared it was like other social networks that linked me (through my friends) to all sort of curious, unwanted people; secondly, because I was under the impression there is nothing so interesting there, like there is no actual communication, there is no message going on...well I started the account because I wanted to keep contact with my friends and colleagues during my maternity leave and of course, show them pictures of my children (to make them live witnesses to their constant growing up) :)
The first question my husband asked when I showed him my account was : "and that's it, you just post pictures and people look at them and they hit the like button?"
"Well, basically, yes", I said.
Then it got me thinking... well, it's not just that... it is about hitting that like button but, by doing so, it's a way of turning alive into an inert world, it's the sign you exist, you are alive and kicking, it's the simple way of showing your interest in the others, of following their lives in a way we could never do in person...I found here my colleagues, my friends and I can monitor their lives from miles away... well that's amazing even the time of our lives facing each other, smiling at each other, touching each other... there are no more senses involved, but these bits of postcards, pictures and quotes we share from one another, and that's the way we understand how they feel: sad, angry, passionate, desperate... that's what we do, check the postcards and motivational pictures and we understand... then we hit LIKE (the most neutral form of showing our support and the fact that we actually share their thoughts and feeling) though it is terribly sad. There are so few instances when we get the time to enjoy real meetings and real life...
I have seen so much joy and pain shouted on Facebook and I could not stop thinking : If a guy walked in the street yelling : "I got married!" or " I'm broken! I wanna die" everyone would consider him a lunatic... here the moment we see this written we hit the like and appreciate his/her courage to tell the truth (we say).
We are all stuck to our desks and homes, we say it's social network, I would say it's the only free time-virtual time network, because if we had the time to go out and share our joys and pains with our friends, if we could spend hours searching clothes in the shops or wander around in search of a cheaper bag, or a cheaper piece of furniture,if we had the time to join themed-clubs and be present there every week to share ideas, advice or information, Facebook would now be just a network for teenagers in search for a partner...but no, our friends are not living close anymore, people get spread around the world, the office hours are longer and longer, the time has changed his face ... we are actually booking the face of time- that should be the definition of Facebook.
So I guess running away from a Facebook account is like going hunting and refusing the gun, no one can face the bear bare-handedly so eventually he will shout for a gun... or play dead :)
Here is a little piece of advice: try and reduce the Facebook to the ultimate means of revealing yourselves, make it a tool, not a purpose... we are human beings and we are terribly beautiful when we exist in real, no picture, no postcard or quote will ever speak our minds better than our eyes, hands and mouth...and there will never be a bigger joy than hugging a friend after 20 years even if you have liked his photos every day...no better joy than seeing your parents faces dropping tears of joy, even though you Skype-ed them every day and never a more genuine love than the kiss of your lover blowing a few hairs covering your face... or the smell of your child hugging you... I'm challenging Facebook to beat that !!!! :)

Motherhood

Yes, I delivered my babies on a winter morning without even dreaming that was THE day...writing and chatting with a friend until 3 in the morning and then at 7 it just happened, my little ones stopped waiting, wanted to come out and do their way in this world... And it was NOTHING I imagined, everything was completely different from what I had previously thought. I was sure I will stay in the hospital for a few days... well I stayed 2 weeks... I was sure I will handle everything by my own... it was so wrong I got frustrated and scared and in need of so much help. I was dreaming myself breastfeeding but I could not have that wonderful feeling (only for a moment one snowy evening and that was all).When I finally got home I got help from my mom and then I was alone for a week... :) handling twins is no joke and when I thought I slowly got the hint, they got sick and I was back in hospital for 2 more weeks...
I could see so much suffering and courage that I have never imagined it could actually exist in this world... I saw young parents coming to the hospital to feed their sick (undergoing surgeries) baby every 3 hour  (and they have done this for 4 months)... but they were happy and considered all the tiredness and suffering just steps before finally sharing all their life with their baby, hoping to be well and forget all the bad things. I realized my problems were just nothing compared to theirs.
I made friends...real mothers I had so much to learn from and I thank them for this
Being a mother changes everything and well it's not all smiles and happiness...it is so much more that I cannot express in proper words. One should be ready to face herself in a different mirror, to change the way and learn to become that person the children need: fearless, fresh and happy when deep inside the opposite happens and yes it is challenging.
Of course it is beautiful and rewarding like nothing else in this world and it's true the smile of your baby makes your day and erases all the bad and the dark. But behind this there is a real struggle a woman faces by herself, 'cause only she can deal with what her soul cries, asks, wonders and faces...
Maybe it's only me but the day I stepped out holding my husband elbow (first time away from the kids) in the street I had the vague feeling I once lived a different life (a job, friends, love life, real life), a life I cannot come back to anymore, a life I have to change and learn how to start a new one, reinvent myself as responsible for the lives of my babies (and that's big, trust me). I panicked many times and I was on the verge of losing myself, but I had to come to my senses for them... I guess that's  why mothers become stronger and that's why they look so powerful and I hope one day I will call myself a MOTHER... like my own mother who amazed me with the patience, endurance and love she surrounded me with...
Until then, motherhood is for me an ongoing process and the feed-back can only be found so many years later, in another time and world...